Bandafassi fire, 18 January 2025 Bandafassi, Missira
The fire started on 18 January 2025 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,881 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 2 in Senegal in 2025, of 112.
- Burnt area
- 32,881ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 18 Jan 2025 – 2 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1,152
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,057 ha in 2016, 22,762 ha in 2017, 4,334 ha in 2018, 2,669 ha in 2019, 20,266 ha in 2020, 21,284 ha in 2021, 5,224 ha in 2022, 25,969 ha in 2023, 8,200 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 32,505 ha that had burned before.
- 16,984 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 34,293 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15,064 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2016 30,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,125 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 31,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,031 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 21,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,243 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 13,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,713 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2023 9,261 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,124 ha Bandafassi fire, March 2017 8,828 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,716 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2024 7,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started32,693 ha reached on 14 Jan5.6 %
-
417 ha reached on 14 Jan0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jan | 32.7 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Jan | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Jan | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Jan | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Jan | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Jan | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Jan | 39.1 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jan | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Jan | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Jan | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 28 Jan | 39.6 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Jan | 38.5 °C | 8 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 30 Jan | 38.7 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 31 Jan | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 1 Feb | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Feb | 32.1 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 3 Feb after | 33.2 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Feb after | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 5 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Feb after | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Feb after | 41.1 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Feb after | 41.1 °C | 13 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 22 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 155 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 98: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,152Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 30,325 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 19 days · 5 km away
- 31,411 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 15 km away
- 131,818 haMissira10 January 2026 · 50 days · 16 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 7 days · 16 km away
- 23,888 haMissira19 January 2023 · 18 days · 21 km away
- 24,965 haMissira28 December 2024 · 7 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2025 and 2 February 2025: 16 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,881 hectares (328.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bandafassi (32,693 ha, 5.6 %); Missira (417 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Senegal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 18
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
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Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.